


The Devil's Herd

by PrairieMule



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: . . . or were they?, Arthur babysitting his little brothers, Gen, Ghosts, Just some boys having a very strange night, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Supernatural Elements, Yeehawgust 2020, yeehawgust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25863868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrairieMule/pseuds/PrairieMule
Summary: What should have been an easy coach robbery takes a sudden, bizarre, and terrifying turn. It's hard to say what Arthur and the others saw that night, but they'll never forget it.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	The Devil's Herd

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill for Yeehawgust Day 10 - Ghost Riders. Hope ya'll like it! I based it on both the real story behind the legendary Texas "Ghost Riders," and on bits from the now famous folk song.

It could not have been a more pristine desert night. The stars twinkling above, a pleasant breeze drifted by, whipping up bits of sand and dust. It was peaceful and calming.

Crouched at the top of a gorge, Arthur waited, binoculars in hand. Occasionally bringing them to his eyes to check the length of the road below them. Annoyance was boiling up inside, finally pushing him to check his pocket watch. “It’s late.” He grumbled, putting the watch away.

Beside him, Lenny spoke up. “How late?”

“Half an hour, according to what this idiot told us.” Arthur looked to his right, finding Sean face first in the sand, the smallest of snores escaping him. 

Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed out a “Jesus Christ” before smacking the back of Sean’s head.

The young man jolted up. “I’m awake, I’m awake.” He said quickly, pushing himself to a sitting position.

“There better be a good reason for this.” Arthur growled.

Sean wiped his eyes and yawned. “Reason? I’m tired and it’s late.”

“Not that, moron. Why ain’t the coach been through yet?”

The Irishman dropped his arms. “Oh . . . uh . . . bad weather?”

Arthur huffed, pointing to the sky. “Does that look like bad weather to you?”

“ . . . No . . .”

“Then what’s the deal, who the hell did you get this tip from?”

“Oh, I ain’t telling you that, Morgan.” Sean shook his head. “You’ll just find them and get all the best information before me and steal my thunder.”

“You serious, Sean?” Lenny laughed.

“Of course I’m serious!” Sean shot back.

“If this coach don’t show.” Arthur began. “You ain’t getting off guard duty for a month.”

Sean looked at him, mouth agape. “That ain’t fair!”

“What else ain’t fair is wasting my time, and the kid’s!”

Sean grabbed his hat and stood. “Well, then let’s just go up the road and find the bastards.”

Arthur got to his feet and stopped the young man before he could run off to the horses waiting nearby. “This is supposed to be an ambush, not a god damn chase.”

“Well clearly things ain’t working out how we expected, so let’s get going!”

“God damn it, Sean.” The hardheaded kid wasn’t going to listen to reason, so Arthur decided it better to take charge of the situation then let Sean take over and let it get out of hand. 

“Alright, we’ll check up the road, we don’t see them, we go back to camp. And this is a bust.”

Sean looked over his shoulder with a wide grin as he approached Ennis. “Have a bit more faith in old Sean.”

Arthur’s response was only a sigh.

“He always like this?” Lenny asked as they walked to their horses.

Arthur shrugged. “You mean bullheaded and stupid? Yes.”

“Well yeah, but I mean trying so hard to prove himself.” 

“Unfortunately.” Arthur replied, reaching Boadicea and giving her a quick pat before mounting up. He looked to Lenny. “You’re still pretty fresh, guess you’ve got a lot to learn about the rest of us.”

Pulling himself onto his own horse, Lenny nodded. “I suppose I do.”

Arthur glanced over at Sean, clearly getting ready to take off. “Now just hold on.” He said, trotting Bo towards him. “You follow my lead, you hear?”

Sean sighed with his whole body, but conceded. “Fine, whatever you say, big man.”

Taking one more look up the road with the binoculars, Arthur saw no moving lantern light, what he knew would signify an approaching coach and guards. “Still nothing.” He said, stowing the binoculars in his satchel. “Let’s get a move on, then.”

With a swift kick to Boadicea’s flank, he got the mare moving. Behind him he heard Sean laugh and encourage Ennis into a canter, Lenny quickly followed on Maggie.

They rode down the slope of the gorge, parallel with the road. The full moon granting them all the light they needed to avoid rocks and the various desert fauna. It was a full ten minutes of riding hard, and finding nothing. Cresting one more tall hill, Arthur brought his horse to a stop, signaling the others to follow suit.

He looked to Sean, giving him a stern glare. “If I don’t see no moving lights down the road, we’re done for the night.”

Sean frowned. “Well I sure hope you see something. I need money.”

“We _all_ need money, Sean.” Lenny replied, pulling up next to him.

“Maybe so, but I’m dying for some new boots. And Ennis here needs a new saddle.”

Their talking becoming background noise, Arthur peered through the binoculars, following the winding road. He didn’t _want_ Sean’s tip to fail, so he was meticulous and careful. But however hard he looked, there were no moving lights. “Sean.” Arthur said at last.

The Irishman perked up, hopeful. “Yeah?”

“There ain’t nothing out here. Not a soul in sight. Not even a traveler’s campfire or little homesteads.”

“So . . . what does that mean?”

“That means I’m suspicious of this tip, and of this whole godforsaken part of this state you’ve dragged us to.” Arthur shook his head. “Guess you’re stuck on guard duty again.”

“Can’t you just take one more look?” Sean pleaded.

The big man sighed. “Fine. One more look.”

So he looked. Up and down the road, nothing in sight. Eerily empty and devoid of life, even for a god damn desert. But then, something did appear. A light of some kind, red in color, two of them, then four, then eight, then twenty, then innumerable. Arthur’s eyes widened, confusion written on his face, hidden from the two young newbies by the binoculars. 

He was trying to figure out what he was seeing when suddenly beside him, Lenny spoke, his voice pitched with concern. “Uhh . . . Arthur.”

Too distracted, he didn’t notice.

“ _Arthur_.” Lenny repeated.

Ignored again, still focused on the countless lights.

Then Lenny shouted. “Arthur! _LOOK!”_

Ripped away from the binoculars by the frightened cries, Arthur looked up, before them, a massive storm approached, nothing but sand and dust as far as the eye could see. The perfect weather of the night shattered in an instance. 

“Sweet mother of . . .” He gasped, then quickly caught himself, turning to the terrified young men he was supposed to be looking out for. There was no time for his own fear. “Masks on, we gotta move, now!”

There was no snark from Sean, who’d only been staring wide-eyed at the approaching storm and lights. And Lenny simply nodded, pulling his bandana over his mouth and nose, happy to be following Arthur’s lead.

The three of them galloped back the way they came, working their horses as hard as they could to outpace the oncoming storm.

But in the end, it was futile. It reached them within minutes, enveloping them and pummeling them with its ferocity. It was a nearly unbearable sensation, the noise deafening, the wind whipping and hitting them at their backs, sand and rocks battering them as they ran. Their bandanas helped, but didn’t completely stop the dust and sand from getting to their throats.

As he coughed and struggled to see, barely able to keep his eyes open more than a squint, Arthur thought he could hear something new in the storm, something that sounded like countless hooves, a stampede almost. Hardly able to see in the tremendous dust cloud, Arthur couldn’t find any animals amongst them, no bison or cattle that could make such a racket.

But the unmistakable red glowing lights were all around them, each one in a pair, moving in tandem with its opposite. Confused and utterly bewildered, he barely had time to process what he was seeing before the gravity of the whole situation hit him. He needed to get these boys to safety, he needed to get poor Bo, Maggie, and Ennis out from the horrendous storm. It could blind their unprotected eyes and batter their bodies.

They may not survive this.

He had to find them shelter, and soon. Braving to open his eyes, Arthur peaked around. Hopeless, until he spotted something that could work, a large rocky overhang not thirty feet from where they were.

Lenny must have seen it too, he turned to Arthur, pointing towards it. “You see that?” He howled over the storm.

“I was thinking the same thing!” Arthur yelled back, he turned to Sean, the Irishman looking frantic in the incredible winds. “This way, Sean!”

The young man yanked his horse in their direction without hesitation, and the three of them pushed through the winds and desert sand, finding relief from the brunt of the storm under the natural shelter.

Their horses were obviously frightened, shaking their heads and prancing, ears pinned back with fear. But the riders may have been just as terrified. Arthur took a moment to try and calm Bo, all while wiping the sand and dust from his eyes. “Lucky we spotted this place.” He called out, coughing still.

“What the hell is all that?” Sean shouted. “I never seen anything like this before.”

“I imagine dust storms ain’t really anything you need to worry about back in Ireland.” Lenny replied.

“You’d be right!” Sean called back, then he looked to Arthur. “How long do these last? Is the rock going to hold?

“I should hope, this area probably sees these storms regularly, we’ll be okay.”

As they waited , the wind blasting past them on either side, that sound of a stampede became unmistakable. Looking forward, Arthur blinked in surprise, it almost seemed like a trick, a hallucination. But before him, blurred by the sand, dust, and dark night, it appeared as though the figures of bovines leaped down from above them and swarmed from either side of the rocky shelter, moving with the storm and countless pairs of red lights.

This imagery continued for a few minutes at least, the noise of the stampede reducing, and with it, the ghastly bovines of dust. Until finally, He heard a different sound amongst the wind, the sound of horses running. Then he saw them, cowboys and steeds, made of the same stuff as those cattle, jumping down from above, and on either side, following after the raging beasts. There were perhaps four that he saw, probably more. 

But if this whole thing wasn’t just the result of sleep deprivation and stress, and this all was truly there, then it was unmistakable that one ghostly rider looked back at him, a gaunt face with red lights for eyes, staring right through him. Arthur’s blood ran cold, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. However quick the rider turned to look, he turned back forward, focused once more on chasing the ghastly beasts and the storm that followed.

Then, the riders were gone and the storm subsided, as quickly as it had arrived. Silence befell the desert and the rocky shelter. Ears ringing, skin stinging, eyes burning. The three of them waited.

Finally, Lenny spoke up, gasping for breath, for air not saturated with dust. “Is . . . is it over?”

Arthur coughed again. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Sean glanced at the two of them, then forward again. “Did you see them?”

Lenny turned, giving the Irishman a confused look. “See what? All the sand? The dust?”

Sean frowned. “How could you not . . .” He paused. “I thought I heard someone say something . . . about 'the Devil’s Herd'?” Sean looked over to them again. “Either of you say that? Didn’t sound like you two.”

“No, I didn’t say that.” Lenny said. “Sure as shit didn’t hear Arthur say it either. You going crazy on us?”

“He’s always been crazy.” Arthur joked, half out of it.

Sean shook his head and cleared his throat. “I know I saw something.”

“Barely saw a damn thing in all that dust.” Arthur replied. “Whatever you saw, must have just been your eyes playing tricks on you.”

The three of them braved their way out from the shelter, brushing themselves off and coughing up sand particles. The horses were still spooked, but had calmed considerably. Above them, the stars shone once more, and the moon bright as ever.

Arthur stared at the clear sky, then in the direction the storm had disappeared. All signs of it gone. As though it had never even happened. “I ain’t seen anything quite like that before. Storm coming on and then leaving in a snap.”

“No one at camp is gonna believe us.” Lenny laughed as they walked slowly towards the road. “I still don’t hardly believe it.”

“Me either.” Arthur agreed, his mind reeling from the things he’d seen. Unable to tell if he’d _really_ seen them.”

“Some night this turned out to be.” Sean sighed.

“Yes, and considering that stage never showed.” Arthur said. “You’re stuck on guard duty.”

“You can't be serious! Maybe the storm got them!”

“Not my problem.” Arthur shrugged.

“You kno-” Sean began, then stopped, staring up the road. “Hey is that . . .”

“What? Don’t try and get out of this.” Arthur snorted with amusement.

“That’s it! The coach!” He pointed enthusiastically up the road, then without waiting, he kicked Ennis into a gallop. “Let’s go get ‘em!” He howled.

“Sean, hold on!” Arthur shouted after him. Releasing a loud sound halfway between a groan and a growl. “God damn that kid.” But Sean was correct, it didn’t take an eagle eye to spot the warm yellow lights moving down the road.

Lenny looked between Arthur and the steadily disappearing Sean “We going after him . . . or . . .” 

“Yeah, come on.” Arthur sighed. “We can’t let him have all the fun.”

“Lead the way.” Lenny replied, had there not been a bandana hiding his face, Arthur was sure the kid was smiling.

He Kicked Boadicea into a gallop, Lenny right behind him, chasing down the enthusiastic Irishman. Whatever strange forces that had befallen them, far behind them now.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't done anything supernatural before, it was a lot of fun to write!
> 
> Hope to do a couple more yeehawgust prompts this year as written one shots, I have done the rest as art pieces, some of which I've shared on my tumblr @prairiemule.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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